European-Style Dining at Lulu’s

December 2017

We all love to try new restaurants, and one of the newest in Grants Pass is Lulu’s for the Love of Food, located at 237 SW G Street. It was the lifelong dream of owner Lisa Thorsen to always own a restaurant, and with the support of her husband, Scott, she renovated an empty building on G Street to meet her needs and opened Lulu’s in 2016.

“I owned Island Girl Coffee in Selma for two years, where I served coffee, bakery items, drive-thru sushi and Hawaiian food,” Lisa said. “I sold that business and went back to real estate. After a couple of years, I decided it was time to follow my dream of owning my own restaurant.”

Lisa moved to the Rogue Valley in 1978 with her family when she was young. After high school, she traveled throughout the U.S. with her late husband, who was a Navy diver.

“We returned to the Valley to raise our kids, and I have been here ever since,” she said. “Scott and I began dating in June of 2015, and I moved to Grants Pass from Selma that August. We got married in December, and we opened the restaurant in February 2016.”

Lisa learned to cook from her grandmother. “As a small child, I used to cook Hawaiian, Puerto Rican and Filipino food with her in the kitchen” she said. “I continued to cook for family and friends for years. Scott and I travel a lot, and we decided to bring our experiences to the restaurant by creating recipes from our travels, so Lulu’s is a mix of worldwide cuisines. We have food from Europe, Central America, Hawaii, and Norway, just to name a few.”

The restaurant also serves organic espresso, and they have a full-service bar. A large amount of their items are organic and locally sourced.

“We are evolving as we go and are always working on new recipes, great service, and high quality,” Lisa said. “We are a friendly group of people who love food and love serving the community and visitors to the Valley. We listen to our customers.”

It is definitely a family affair as both Scott, and Lisa’s daughter Kiah, who is also the front end manager, were pivotal in the remodeling effort and creating the menu.

“We also utilized a number of local companies and artists in the area to create a comforting, European-like café,” Lisa said.For more info, the phone number is 541-295-8627. You can see them at lulusfortheloveoffood.com and on Facebook.